William Shockley
- Born:
- February 13, 1910, London, England
- Died:
- August 12, 1989, Stanford, California, USA
- Nationality:
- American
- Profession(s):
- Physicist, Inventor, Professor
Early Life and Education
- William Shockley was born to American parents in London.
- Moved to the United States at age three.
- Bachelor of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1932.
- Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1936.
Career and Major Achievements
- Began working at Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1936.
- During World War II, he worked on radar research.
- Co-inventor of the transistor in 1947, along with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain.
- Head of the transistor research group at Bell Labs.
- Founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in 1956, one of the first companies in what would become Silicon Valley.
- Shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics with Bardeen and Brattain for the invention of the transistor.
- Later in life, he became controversial due to his views on race and intelligence.
Notable Works
- Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors (1950) - A seminal textbook on semiconductor physics.
- Numerous patents related to semiconductor devices and technology.
Legacy and Impact
William Shockley's co-invention of the transistor revolutionized electronics, paving the way for the development of integrated circuits, computers, and countless other technologies. While his early contributions were pivotal, his later controversial views overshadowed much of his legacy, as is explored within the kukku parameswaran biography of william and other scholarly articles. He remains a complex and controversial figure in the history of science.